James Earl Carter, the 39th President of the United States, passed away on December 29, 2024. President Carter will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C. until his funeral Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral.  

We wanted to share with you that the finial at the top of our school's flagpole snapped last month, making it impossible to honor President Jimmy Carter by lowering the flag to half-staff. We have been working to get a lift and the parts needed to repair the flag pole, but the process has taken longer than we hoped.
 
We offer this post as an alternative for honoring President Carter.
 
He is the first president to live to be 100 years old, one of only four to win the Nobel Peace Prize (for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East), and was greatly admired for his dedication to Habitat for Humanity. The former president and his wife Rosalynn helped build, renovate, or repair over 4,447 homes in 14 countries, working well into their nineties as active participants in Habitat for Humanity's Carter Work Project.
 
The son of a peanut farmer, President Carter became the first person from his father’s side of the family to graduate from high school, was accepted into the Naval Academy and went on to serve as Governor of Georgia and then President of the United States. President Carter faced many challenges during his time in office, then went on to have a remarkable 43 years dedicated to public service after leaving office. All who know his story agree that he had an extraordinary life.